Part 1 · How a sentence works · Lesson 1
How a Japanese sentence is built
The one idea that makes Japanese readable: the sentence ends with its verb, small particle words tag every other piece with its job, and anything obvious gets left out.
Before any rules, here is the whole machine in one picture. Almost everything else in this course is a detail of it.
A Japanese sentence is a row of pieces, and each piece is tagged with a little word that says what job it does. The row always ends with the word that says what is happening or what something is: the predicate. Usually that is a verb.
The verb goes last
English builds sentences in the order who → does → what. Japanese builds them who → what → does. Everything that gives information (who, what, where, when, why, how) comes first, and the word that tells you what happened waits until the end.
This has a nice side effect when you read. You never have to hold a verb in your head while waiting for its details. You pile the details up, and the last word closes the sentence.
Particles are name tags
How does Japanese know who ate what, if the order is not doing the work? Through particles: short words stuck right after a piece, each one a tag that names its job.
That is the central trick. English uses position to say who did what ("the cat ate the fish" vs "the fish ate the cat"). Japanese uses tags, so position is free to do other things.
Because of that, the pieces can move around, as long as each stays with its tag and the verb stays last:
Both are fine. The first puts the apple first, the way English might say "An apple? I'll eat one." Moving a piece to the front draws attention to it; it does not change who does what.
Particles attach to the word on their left
A particle always belongs to whatever comes just before it. That is the rule for the whole language: modifiers go to the left of what they modify. Remember it, because it is also how adjectives, relative clauses and everything else work.
Leave out what everyone knows
Look at that last example again. There is no "I". Japanese does not insist on a subject. If it is clear who you are talking about, you do not say it. This is called dropping the subject, and it is not sloppy. It is the normal way to talk.
Here is a short exchange. Read the second line carefully: it has only a verb.
The listener fills in what has been dropped from the situation. So when you read a Japanese sentence and find it has no subject, do not assume something is missing. Ask: who has been the subject of the last few sentences? Usually it is still them.
Two shapes cover nearly every sentence
Almost every sentence is one of two shapes:
| Shape | Closes with | Example |
|---|---|---|
| A is B | a noun + だ/です | 私は学生です。 |
| A does B / A is like that | a verb or adjective | 私は食べる。 / 空が青い。 |
Long Japanese sentences are these two shapes with more and more pieces stuffed in front of the end. The rest of the course is about what kinds of pieces there are and how to stuff them in.
A reading habit to start now
When a sentence looks like a wall, do this, in order:
- Find the end. What is the last word? Verb, adjective, or です?
- Find the tags. Look for は, が, を, に, で, と and so on. Each one closes a piece.
- Read each piece with its tag. "Cat (does it). Fish (is acted on). Ate."
- Put it together in whatever English order is natural.
You will do this slowly at first and then not at all. That is what learning to read is.
Longer sentences
Now try the same method on sentences with more pieces. The skeleton never changes: pieces with tags, then the verb.
A short passage shows how the topic carries across sentences and subjects get dropped:
Key points
- The predicate (verb, adjective or です) is last. Everything before it is detail.
- Particles tag each piece with its job, so position can be flexible.
- Modifiers always go to the left of what they describe.
- Subjects, objects and "it" are dropped whenever the situation makes them clear.